mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (05/31/84)
[Little bugs get hungry too]
As I recall, Leonard Bernstein devoted a whole chapter in his _Young People's
Concerts_ book to the Meaning of Music. HIs point was (to my foggy
recollection) that music didn't "mean" anything in the sense that a painting
or a story could. (Sort of a "Music means music" theory.)
I think he's right, and I think that this is the reason why theoretical art
is doomed to failure, at least on its own terms. Theoretical music such as
Cage's has traditionally neglected the musical meaning of music (so as not to
obscure the theory) and thus seems to me to have no meaning at all.
Obviously Bernstein's solution is to write lots of vocal music, so he can
have his music and still shout his opinions to the world. Why else would
anyone write MASS or the KADDISH? :-)
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Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Charley Wingate
(Lost in the bowels of umcp-cs)